Visualizing Luhmann's Folgezettel in Logseq
This is a contribution to The Great Folgezettel Debate. What exactly are those "Folgezettels", that Daniel and Sascha debate? And why do they matter? I think that we need better visualizations of Luhmann's actual zettels to answer those questions.
I suggest an experiment. Explore the online edition of Niklas Luhmann's Zettelkasten. Search for zettels you find interesting. Download those zettels. Print them out and lay them out on a table. Or use a software tool to lay them out digitally. Or use transcriptions of Luhmann's zettels and arrange those.
In this showcase I use Logseq (with some custom CSS) to create an interactive digital version of Luhmann's Zettelkasten.
The first screenshot shows the top level view. Luhmann had two Zettelkästen. The older Zettelkasten I and the newer Zettelkasten II. (The green dot indicates in Logseq, that the note contains nested notes.)
The next screenshot shows ZK II. At the top level there are 12 index cards. (Zettel 1 exists twice. I wrote both zettels in the same node, so that the navigation in Logseq works better.)
Note that the cards contain a lot of text. ("Xxxxx" stands for text that hasn't been transcribed yet. Bold stands for underlined text.)
The next screenshot starts with note 1. Note how the text on most zettels ends mid sentence. The symbol (↘️) indicates that the text continues in a separate note sequence. Red numbers are represented with markers in the text (🔻, "Anschlußstelle" in Luhmann's words) and in the corresponding footnotes (🔺). "R" points to the reverse side of the index card. (I added the reverse side to the same card in Logseq for easier navigation.)
The next screenshot starts with note 1/1. Note that there are two different numbering schemes 1/1,1 to 1/1,4 and 1/1a to 1/1b. The first one (marked with a red border in the screenshots) are more like footnotes. The other is the default "Zettelfolge" (with the typical alternating pattern of letters and numbers).
Zettel 1/1,1 contains footnote 1 (🔺). Zettel 1/1,2 continues the text of the previous zettel (⬇️⬆️).
Zettel 1/1,2a branches off a new Zettelfolge (note sequence) of zettel 1/1,2 (↘️↖️).
The next screenshot starts with note 1/2. Zettels 1/2,1 and 1/2,2 are footnotes. 1/2a continues 1/2 and branches off a new Zettelfolge. 1/2b adds a new argument.
The next screenshot starts with note 9. Again most zettels contain a lot of text.
The next screenshot starts with note 9/8. Luhmann used these zettels to prepare the famous article Kommunikation mit Zettelkästen. Some zettels might look familiar. Again two numbering schemes 9/8,1 to 9/8,3 and 9/8a to 9/8j.
The next screenshot starts with note 9/8a. Topic of this note sequence is the relation between the Zettelkasten and its user.
The next screenshot starts with note 9/8b. Topic is the relation between notes in the Zettelkasten.
So what exactly are Folgezettel or Zettelfolgen or note sequences?
Luhmann describes them in Kommunikation mit Zettelkästen as "running text" ("laufenden Text", "fortlaufend"). As you can see in the screenshots, the zettels can be read like continuous text. Several zettel continue text from other zettels. Some make a verbal reference to the previous zettel, eg 9/8b1.
Luhmann also talks about connecting or adding notes to branches ("ergänzt", "angeschlossen"). Most connections are made implicitly by adding a new level to the ID. In the screenshots some connection points are marked with symbols (↘️↖️⬇️⬆️🔻🔺). They continue text from a previous note or are similar to footnotes. Whereas links are just IDs in the text. For example note 1/2b contains a link to 532/4b6a.
I think that Luhmann's zettels and the numbering scheme make much more sense, when you look at the original zettels (or their transcripts) and lay them out as note sequences. It's easy to see, how each zettel has a meaningful connection to the previous zettel in the note sequence. This the principle of Folgezettel.
This principle is valuable, because it is not atomic. It's an alternative to atomicity.
In Luhmann's Zettelkasten anything goes. There are notes with multiple short thoughts. There are long thoughts spanning multiple zettels. There are notes mixing own thoughts, bibliographies and quotes. The system is flexible and scalable. The IDs efficiently create a complex and meaningful structure with index cards. Luhmann added mechanisms like red numbers and "links" for connections that go beyond Folgezettel.
TL;DR
Logseq is an excellent tool to build a digital version of Luhmann's original Zettelkasten. It helps visualize how Luhmann worked. It helps appreciate the power of Luhmann's numbering scheme, that implies so much structural information in such a short ID. An outliner like Logseq makes it easy to see the importance of Folgezettels in Luhmann's own note-making.
In Luhmann's Zettelkasten, most notes are Folgezettels. Luhmann's notes aren't self-contained independent atoms. They are organized in "strings of thought" (Ahrens, 2022), that provide a permanent and meaningful context for every note.
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